Friday, May 9, 2014

I am so pleased to have the lovely Monica Fairview as a guest today! Her latest novel, Mr. Darcy's Pledge, is the first volume in the series. I cannot wait to begin this series! From the book blurb and reviews I have read, Mr. Darcy's Pledge sounds like a diverting read.

Keep reading for a chance to win your own paperback copy of Mr. Darcy's Pledge!!

From the publisher:

Torn
between his heart and his mind… Mr. Darcy must make a choice.

Fitzwilliam
Darcy has always been able to keep his emotions under control. That is, until
he falls under the spell of Elizabeth Bennet and surprises himself by blurting
out a proposal to her like a moonstruck youth. Stung to the quick by her
rejection, his pride in tatters, and left with no possibility that she will ever
return his regard, Darcy determines to put all thoughts of Elizabeth behind
him. But not even Town with its boundless opportunities for amusement can keep
the image of Elizabeth Bennet from pursuing him everywhere he goes.

By the
time Darcy leaves Town to travel up to Pemberley, he has learned one thing. There
is only one way of overcoming Miss Bennet’s bewitching hold over him and Darcy
is desperate enough to try it. The solution is to get married. And this time,
he is not going to choose a wife by allowing his emotions to lead him by the
nose.

His
choice will be entirely rational…

In Volume
I of this Pride and Prejudice variation, Monica Fairview traces Mr. Darcy’s
journey as he struggles to come to terms with the upheaval Elizabeth Bennet has
caused in his life…and his heart.

*******

Excerpt:

It was a
warm, sticky night, one of those summer nights when, even with the windows
open, it was difficult to breathe.When
Darcy finally managed to drift off, after what seemed like hours of waiting in
vain for sleep to overcome him, a thunderclap roused him. He trudged to the
windows to close them. The rain provided no relief from the heat; quite the
opposite. With the windows closed, the room grew even more oppressive.

His brief
periods of slumber were flooded with torrid dreams that ended in disappointment.
In one particularly vivid dream, he thought Elizabeth was running towards him,
but as he reached out to embrace her, he realized she was looking behind him at
Wickham. In the dream, he was compelled to look on as Wickham came forward to
seize her and plant his lips on hers.

Darcy sat
up in his bed and ran his hands over his face in despair. Now both Wickham and
Elizabeth were invading his dreams. Even if he was able to control his thoughts
in the daytime, he could not control them at night.

It simply
would not do. Something had to be done about it before long or he feared for
his sanity.

The only way he would be able to forget Elizabeth was to
replace her with a real-life bride. The problem was he did not wish to be hasty
in his choice. He could not allow himself to be ruled either by passion or
desperation. He wanted to choose calmly and rationally.

What then was he waiting for?

The sooner he decided what an ideal bride for Pemberley
should be like, the sooner he could begin his search.

Full of determination, he rose and dressed without the
assistance of his valet. Sequestering himself in the library, he sat at his
desk, sharpened a quill, and began to write.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

I’d only read one book by Monica Fairview
before this, Steampunk Darcy, which
I really enjoyed, so I was very grateful to Jakki for the opportunity to try
something more traditional by this author. Mr
Darcy’s Pledge is a Pride and Prejudice variation, from Darcy’s
perspective, beginning just after the Hunsford Proposal. Darcy is returning to
Georgiana at Pemberley to lick his wounds and he has made a momentous decision
– he made a huge mistake in offering for Elizabeth Bennet, and now he needs to
put it behind him, and marry somebody else.

He wants to do this partly to help him get
over his unreciprocated infatuation for Elizabeth (which is obviously a very
bad and risky idea!) and partly because he is beginning to think of launching
Georgiana into society, and so he needs a woman to help him do this. In
preference to his relatives, he considers enlisting the help of a neighbour, Lady
Renwick, who was good friends with his mother. Lady Renwick has her niece
staying with her, Miss Elinor Marshall, who is the most beautiful woman that
Darcy has ever set eyes on. This makes Darcy wonder whether finding a bride
might be easier than he’d first thought. However, there is a lot to distract
him from his quest to find a bride, with a multitude of visitors to Pemberley,
both expected and unexpected, and perhaps even a London tradesman and his wife
and niece visiting the area of Lambton on a summer tour...

This could have been quite an angst-filled
variation, firstly because Darcy is genuinely heartbroken and suffering and
secondly, because he is planning to marry in haste and potentially repent at
leisure. Deep down, he knows this, and while he is trying to convince himself
that he has recovered from his infatuation for Miss Bennet and is ready to move
on he really isn’t ready to do so:

“His heart protested, but he was having none of it. His heart had no
say in the matter. Consulting his heart in the matter of marriage was a foolish
indulgence, nothing more. Men fell in love and out of love all the time. It was
a passion of the moment, forgotten soon enough. Marriage was about producing
heirs and managing a household. It was the choice of a lifetime.

He could not help
feeling that a lifetime was a very long time.”

The other thing that saves this from being
a sad read is the humour. There is so much humour, from wry asides here and there,
to the awful comic creations of Lord and Lady Matlock.Ms Fairview’s Darcy falls short of eccentric
but he’s leaning towards it in a loveable and amusing way. He decides to
determine what character traits he is looking for in a wife as a starting point
to finding his bride:

“Choosing
a wife would take more careful thought than he had imagined. Already the mental
list was growing longer by the minute. He should write it all down.”

I loved the way the lists he made were
contradictory, as he’d list what he thought were ‘proper’ qualities in a wife,
and then he’d cross them out and replace them with the qualities he really
wanted.Darcy is uncharacteristically impulsive
in his efforts to overcome his heartbreak and his behaviour really confuses
poor Georgiana, who doesn’t know what has effected this change in her
previously staid and dependable brother.

One of the things I liked best about this
book was the development of Georgiana, who goes from a timid, shy girl, to a
girl bewildered by the change she’s seeing in her brother, to a woman who is
able to stand up for herself and is not afraid to show her claws when she’s
under attack.Darcy and Georgiana’s
relationship develops too, from a father/daughter style relationship to a more
equal footing.

Darcy
gave her a disbelieving look then realized she was joking. “Since when have you
turned into a jester?”

“Since
I realized the sky will not fall down on me if I make a joke,” said Georgiana.
“And since I discovered my brother is rather fond of laughter.” She threw him a
significant glance.

I was a little unsure of the familiarity
between people in the story. Both new characters and existing seemed to get on
familiar terms very quickly. In some cases this was used as a device to
highlight encroaching characters but in others it didn’t sit quite right with
me, especially when some of the people were on less familiar terms in Pride and
Prejudice than they are here, however, this was a minor issue and didn’t affect
my enjoyment of the story.

Mr Darcy’s Pledge is volume one of ‘The
Darcy Novels’, so be warned that it’s not a complete story although thankfully
it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger. We see some Elizabeth, but not as much as I’d
like. There is the definite promise of more page time for Elizabeth in Volume
2. The only real shame is the wait I’ll have to have until I can read Volume 2,
which is not yet available!

Man, Mr. Darcy's Pledge sounds like a must-read! I cannot wait to get my hands on it! Thanks for the wonderful review, Ceri. Are you as interested in Mr. Darcy's Pledge as I am? Then be sure to stop by on Friday as Monica Fairview has a great excerpt and giveaway for you, dear readers!! =)